


And the Charm of Strangeness

by 0hHeyThereBigBadWolf



Category: Leverage, The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Because I can, Crossover, Living Together, Multi, One Shot, Polyamory, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 09:17:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12814407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0hHeyThereBigBadWolf/pseuds/0hHeyThereBigBadWolf
Summary: There is no home like the one you've got, because that home belongs to you. Even if it is a very strange and odd sort of family that nobody else is ever really going to understand, as two brothers discuss.





	And the Charm of Strangeness

Jake was in charge of the shopping because he was the only one out of them that actually knew how to cook a meal that didn't come with step-by-step instructions on a box, not to mention he possessed an extremely practical disposition when it came to that sort of thing, having grown up with a big family and a small budget. Eve wrote the list, knowing everyone's preferences and dietary requirements; sometimes, between his flyaway missions, Flynn would wander out from his study like a confused hermit blinking in the light of day, offering to drive until Eve reminded him what happened the  _last_ time he tried to drive, at which point he'd flush and shuffle off again.

Eve dealt with Jenkins when the old caretaker got fractious with them, and Lamia kicked them all out of bed whenever the Clippings Book went off. Ezekiel kept them in movie nights, good tea, and wild stories. Flynn kept them in terrible coffee, even wilder stories, and insane leaps of genius. Cassandra kept them in sweets, math-spouting cuddles, and explanations for the leaps of genius, some of which were more believable than others.

Eve slept with Flynn most of the time, but sometimes with Cassandra. Ezekiel had somehow wormed his way past Lamia's prickly barriers after the new Guardian became a permanent fixture in the Library following her recovery from the stab wound, so it was her bed he usually curled up in, if she wasn't already sharing it with Jake. Cassandra would sleep with Jake most nights, but sometimes she would stay with Lamia, too. And on the really bad nights, there was a room that came and went as it was needed, with a bed large enough to that they could all sprawl in it together, like kittens sleeping in a warm pile.

"This is weird," Eliot said forthrightly during one of those odd, sporadic visits where he sometimes came to see his brother in the Library; some days, Jake would go visit him in the brewpub. They were getting used to seeing each other again after nearly twenty years' worth of estrangement.

Jake shrugged. "No weirder than your little ménage. And it works for us, so...ain't broke, don't fix it."

"Not weirder than magic," Ezekiel chipped in cheerfully, then swore when he hit his head on the cabinet under the sink as he dug around looking for...something, Jake wasn't sure.

"It's just me, Parker, and Hardison, though. Just the three of us. Not...how many of you are there now? Nine? Ten?" he asked, eyes full of teasing humour.

"Six, thank you very much."

Cassandra came in and jumped up onto the countertop next to the stove, thumping the heels of her Doc Martens against the cupboards. She fixed Eliot with a direct gaze and said matter-of-factly, "If you guys want to join us, you'll need to ask a lot nicer than that."

Eliot flushed bright red.

Jake snorted into his mug.

Just then, Eve walked into the kitchen, looked between the brothers, and narrowed her eyes. "What's going on in here?" she asked.

"Nothing," Eliot, Jake, and Cassandra said at once, with nonchalance in varying degrees of convincing.

Guardian Light, as Ezekiel teasingly called her, gave another glance around the kitchen and fixed Cassandra and Jake with a firm glance apiece. "Behave, the both of you," she ordered before turning back and walking into the hallway to answer a shout of her name from Flynn.

Eliot watched her go, then turned back to his brother. "When did all this start, anyways?"

"Dunno, honestly," he admitted. "We've always kinda...looked after each other, when we got banged up on missions and..." He shrugged uncomfortably. "I dunno."

Lamia, Guardian Dark to Ezekiel, shuffled into the kitchen with her dark curls standing up in disarray, wearing a pair of silk pajama shorts and one of Jake's flannel shirts, which she'd misbuttoned. She ruffled Jake's hair as she passed him on the way to the coffeemaker, aimed a side-swiping kick at Ezekiel's ass, and kissed Cassandra's shoulder before retrieving her penguin novelty mug from the cupboard and fixing her daily dose of life-affirming caffeine.

"It's never felt like we don't belong here," she said after taking the first long sip, and there was a hesitant, uneasy note to her voice that made Jake want to hug her, except he knew she'd break his arm if he tried.

Ezekiel let out a victorious, "Ha!" and sprang to his feet with a glass bottle clasped in one hand. He ruffled Lamia's bedhead as he passed, and she made another kick at his backside, though her aim suffered from lack of full consciousness. He bounced out of the kitchen, and they all smiled after him, save for Eliot, who rolled his eyes.

"It's a big place, the Library. With all the magic and power," Jake said. "And it's very easy to feel very small in it. Lost, too. It's damn well unusual, I know, more so than before, but we ain't lost. Or...maybe we still are, but we're lost together. And that works."

"Yeah." Eliot's gaze drifted around the kitchen, which looked like the mad scientist and the sorcerer's apprentice had tried to furnish it together, a juxtaposition of the new and the old, the magical and the mundane. Lamia's beta, Mr. Fish, swam happily in a repurposed brandy snifter on the shelf above the kitchen sink, next to a glass flower from Shangri-La that Jenkins had coaxed into blooming. "I can see that."

Jake grinned.

* * *

The following Friday, when he made his usual shopping trip, he made a few amendments to the usual 'specifics' list.

He got Lamia's coffee, Eve's trail mix, and Flynn's peanut butter, along with his kettle chips, Ezekiel's wholegrain pasta, and Cassandra's assorted candy. But he also added Hardison's orange soda and gummy frogs, Parker's cereal, and Eliot's red currant jelly, along with Nate's good whiskey and Sophie's tea. Jake knew the crew would never be a permanent fixture around the Library like he and his fellow Librarians and their Guardians were. The Library was their home, just like the brewpub was the crew's. He knew that Sophie and Nate would probably never partake in a game of Musical Beds, as Ezekiel oh-so-charmingly put it, even if the other three did decide to join in—Parker had probably already agreed, and Hardison was digging his heels in just to be a pain in the ass, and oh, how familiar that was. But they were family, and there was always room for them, even if it was just for a little while.

The cashier raised both eyebrows at the size and variety in the cart when he pushed it over to the checkout. "Having a party?" she ventured at last.

Jake smiled and shrugged. "Nah, just a big family at home."


End file.
